After a year and a half, your startup can go through a lot of changes. Sometimes these changes are so deep that you will need to rebrand your company entirely. Leandro Cabrini of Wild Yeast Media – a digital marketing agency focused on wine-related businesses – talks us through the rebranding process that his company recently went through.
Why we decided to rebrand
Like lots of startups, Wild Yeast Media started with a great idea. We were going to provide comprehensive services for wine-related companies, which ranged from digital marketing to wine tasting events, wine training and more. We even thought about providing storage and distribution solutions! Time went by, we evolved, things changed and we reached a point where our brand name and identity didn’t represent what we were anymore. In short, we needed a change.
Wild Yeast Media was called Cabrini Wine Services in the early days. It wasn’t a very specific name, but you could tell the company had something to do with wine and wine-related services. Digital marketing was a secondary service; it was something I really liked that was going to be outsourced, as I couldn’t take care of everything myself. The primary service was providing brand ambassadors for wine tasting events.
Due to a strong social media strategy, we started getting noticed by wine producers. Our digital marketing services turned out to be quite popular, so we decided we had to focus on those and do it ourselves, rather than outsourcing and wasting time and effort on services that weren’t worth it.
Of course, after we dropped the “comprehensive” services and focused solely on digital marketing, the name Cabrini Wine Services was no longer representative of our company. It was the perfect time for a full rebrand.
How we did it
The first step for us was choosing a new name. It was a difficult decision, as changing it for a second time might have appeared strange for our clients. So it had to be representative of our company’s vision and values, as well as being something that would stick around for a long time.
The first step was deciding if the name was going to have media / social / social media / marketing / digital marketing in it. To leave room for future development, we decided that media fitted quite well, so we had ⅓ of our new name.
We also knew that we wanted a three-word name. So after many brainstorming sessions and lots of discarded ideas, we selected Wild Yeast Media.
If you are not in the wine business, you are probably thinking, “what is wild yeast?”. But if you are, you will know what it means and what it stands for, which is exactly what we wanted. It tells our clients that we know our industry.
Boring winemaking technical information: yeast is used to transform the sugars in the grapes into alcohol. As yeast is used to transform things, we were well represented by the name Wild Yeast Media. This is because we transform companies into better ones, giving them a fresh online presence and an edgy new look.
Why wild? Because yeast can be wild or cultured, although most quality-driven wine producers use wild yeasts. It also represents the wild nature of our company, as we inject some innovation into the very traditional and long-established environment of winemaking.
After the name and the idea behind it were ready, it was just a matter of looking for the right design partner to work with on the visual identity of the brand. Luckily, we found Lee Scott, who did a great job understanding what the brand was all about. He managed to transform our ideas into a beautiful brand identity that summed up our connection with wine and social media perfectly.
What impact did it have
After we finished the rebranding process and communicated it to all of our existing and prospective clients, we had an outstanding response and plenty of positive feedback. I believe they felt a stronger connection with us. Knowing that we now have a more professional brand identity and that we care about improving and growing can only be good news for them, too!
We are still in the early stages of our new branding, but I’m quite sure it will help us out tremendously. The new look has made us feel more confident about ourselves and the company we represent.
Final thoughts
A full rebrand is not something to take lightly. It takes a long time and it’s a demanding process, both in time and energy. It’s also something you probably don’t want to do more than once so if you are thinking about embarking on this long journey then make sure you prepare for it properly and don’t rush it. After all, hopefully the new brand will stay with your company forever!
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